UPDATED: Montana, New Hampshire, Kansas issue stay-at-home orders

Montana, New Hampshire and Kansas have joined a growing club of states with stay-at-home orders, bringing the total to 31.

On Saturday, March 28, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announced an executive stay-home order for the state to begin Monday, March 31 and last at least through Sunday, April 19.

On Thursday, March 26, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock issued a directive that requires Montanans to stay home and closes all nonessential businesses. The order goes into effect on Saturday, March 28 and remains in effect through April 10.

“I am taking these measures today because we need to stay in front of this pandemic and slow the growth of infections,” Bullock said in a statement. “In order to have a healthy economy we need a healthy population. We cannot rebuild our economic strength without doing everything we can now to flatten the curve and slow the spread of this virus.”

Consistent with stay-at-home orders in other states, Montanans can leave home for essential activities.

Essential activities include those for:

• Health and safety.
• Necessary supplies and services.
• Outdoor activity.
• Certain types of work, i.e. essential business.
• Taking care of others.

For the most part, the directive uses the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s critical infrastructure sectors list for guidance regarding essential business.

Meanwhile in New Hampshire, Emergency Order 17 is a stay-at-home order for Granite Staters. It also directs the closure of nonessential businesses. Like Montana’s order, this one goes into effect on March 28. However, New Hampshire’s order extends to May 4.

Essential businesses are identified in an attachment to the order, Exhibit A. According to Exhibit A, it is a living document subject to change. Updated information can be found at NHeconomy.com/COVID19.

Essential activities are mostly the same as Montana’s and most other states with stay-at-home orders. However, New Hampshire added “receiving deliveries from Amazon, UPS, FedEx, the U.S. Postal Service or any other deliveries” to its list.

In Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf signed another amendment to the emergency declaration. The amendment adds nine more counties to the stay-at-home order. In total, 19 counties are part of the order: Allegheny, Berks, Bucks, Butler, Chester, Delaware, Erie, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton, Philadelphia, Pike, Wayne, Westmoreland and York counties.

For stay-at-home orders in other states, check out Land Line’s previous coverage:
More than half of states have stay-at-home orders
Stay-at-home orders issued in several more states
Stay-at-home orders issued in more than a dozen states